Terence Osborn Ranger is a prominent African historian

History of Africa

The history of Africa begins with the prehistory of Africa and the emergence of Homo sapiens in East Africa, continuing into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. Agriculture began about 10,000 BCE and metallurgy in about 4000 BCE. The history of early...

, focusing on the history of Zimbabwe

History of Zimbabwe

At the end of the Bush War there was a transition to majority rule in 1980. The United Kingdom ceremonially granted Zimbabwe independence on April 18, 1980 in accordance with the Lancaster House Agreement...

. Part of the post-colonial generation of historians, his work spans the pre- and post-Independence (1980) period in Zimbabwe, from the 1960s to the present.

Ranger is an emeritus fellow of St Antony's College

St Antony's College, Oxford

St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.St Antony's is the most international of the seven all-graduate colleges of the University of Oxford, specialising in international relations, economics, politics, and history of particular parts of the...

, Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, England. He previously held the chair of Rhodes Professor of Race Relations at the university.

One of his influential works is a collaboration with Eric Hobsbawm

Eric Hobsbawm

Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm , CH, FBA, is a British Marxist historian, public intellectual, and author...

 is The Invention of Tradition

Invented traditions

Invented Traditions is a concept made prominent in a 1983 book edited by E. J. Hobsbawm and T. O. Ranger, The Invention of Tradition In their Introduction the editors argue that many "traditions" which "appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented." They...

(1983).

In 1980, Ranger founded the Britain Zimbabwe Society with Guy Clutton-Brock

Guy Clutton-Brock

Arthur Guy Clutton-Brock was an English social worker, who became a Zimbabwean nationalist and co-founder of Cold Comfort Farm....

, of which he is now president .